Rules to drink by: State approval can help protect everyone's water
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After mishaps occurred this month at two Marcellus Shale gas wells -- in Clearfield County and in Moundsville, W.Va. -- assorted calls have been heard around Pennsylvania for a moratorium on deep drilling for natural gas.
Those calls are premature. What's needed is tough regulatory oversight from the state Department of Environmental Protection and approval from the Legislature for a Marcellus Shale tax that will support a fund to address ill effects of such activity.
DEP has added personnel statewide to keep a close eye on the booming industry and is conducting on-site safety reviews in response to the Moundsville explosion, which burned seven workers. It is investigating the cause of the "blowout" in Clearfield, after ordering the company at the site to suspend new well drilling and well completion operations at 50 sites in Pennsylvania.
DEP must continue to be a vigorous regulator in this area, balancing the interests of water consumers, business, property owners and the state's natural environment. That's how the agency is approaching the need for effective new rules on water that will see action this week in Harrisburg.
An obscure rule-making body will have the chance to protect Pennsylvania's rivers and streams and help preserve them as a source of drinking water and a healthy environment for fish and other wildlife. DEP has written two rules that would prevent fouling of the water supply, and the state's Environmental Quality Board already has approved them. The five-member Independent Regulatory Review Commission, which has the job of making sure proposed regulations are in the public's best interest, will consider them on Thursday.
The most significant of the two regulations would put limits on the discharge into waterways of "total dissolved solids" -- elements collected in water including sulfates, sodium, calcium and chlorides. While TDS can be traced to a variety of industries, including coal mining, the expansion of underground drilling for natural gas from the Marcellus Shale makes this proactive move essential.
First Published June 15, 2010 12:00 am
